Students at George Washington University are petitioning the school to change its official nickname, arguing that it’s “extremely offensive.”
The Change.org petition, started by student Rachel Yakobashvili has received more than 330 signatures (and counting). Once the petition reaches 500 signatures, the Student Association has to at least acknowledge it.
“We, as students, faculty, and staff of the George Washington University, believe it is of great exigence that the University changes the official nickname for its affiliates,” the petition reads. “The use of ‘Colonials’ no matter how innocent the intention, is received as extremely offensive by not only affiliates of the University, but the nation and world at large. The historically, negatively-charged figure of Colonials has too deep a connection to colonization and glorifies the act of systemic oppression.”
The petition asks that the school to consider changing the nickname to “Hippos” or “River Horses” — since that’s clearly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a school named after our nation’s first president.
According to outgoing Student Association President Peak Sen Chua, the student association has already been suggesting “Hippos” as an alternative mascot, holding an event called “Hippo Day” in February where they handed out cupcakes and stickers of hippopotamuses.
“We tried to amplify calling ourselves the hippos rather than the Colonials,” Chua said.
Bucking our nation’s history and heritage, students like Yakobashvili and Chua have completely fallen under the spell of political correctness. What’s next? Are they going to petition to remove Washington’s name from the school?
These ultra-PC students would rather manufacture an artificial legacy than honor the rich history of their 200-year-old school and its namesake.
In case you were wondering why a “hippo” of all things, the GWU Hippo is an unofficial mascot that started when past GWU President Stephen Trachtenberg donated a bronze sculpture of a hippopotamus back in 1996, and students started rubbing its head and putting coins in its mouth for good luck. They call it the “River Horse.”
University mascots have been a source of campus controversy for years. GWU might just follow the footsteps of Stanford University, which stopped using the nickname Indians (and retired their associated mascot, Prince Lightfoot) after a student protest in 1972. The school never officially replaced its mascot, and students have mockingly filled the void with a makeshift mascot — the Stanford Tree — so as to not insult any cultural group.
Annabel LaBrecque, the co-president of GW Students for Indigenous and Native American Rights, argues that many students and faculty agree that the mascot is offensive, despite the fact that our nation’s Founding Fathers were colonials, including the university’s namesake. These brave leaders fought for freedom from the tyranny and oppression of their home country, and founded a truly “free” nation.
GWU students can rebrand their school, but they can’t rewrite its history or the history of our country for that matter. Without the colonials, we would have no country, and we would have no George Washington University.
